The UFC returns to Mexico’s capitol city and its 7,380-foot elevation for the first time since 2017 when Arena Ciudad de Mexico plays host to UFC on ESPN+ 17.
This card, to put it mildly, is not the deepest show the UFC has ever run.
However!
The main event between featherweights Yair Rodriguez and Jeremy Stephens promises to be one worth going out of your way to see. Rodriguez (11-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) is one of the most spectacular performers in the game, as he reminded us last time out when he knocked out Chan Sung Jung with one second left in their UFC Denver main event. Stephens (28-16 MMA, 15-15 UFC), for his part, has a long history of putting on exciting performances in both victory and defeat.
UFC on ESPN+ 17 takes place Saturday at Mexico City Arena. The card streams on ESPN+.
Without further ado, here are five key storylines heading into Saturday night’s card.
Is Yair Rodriguez all the way back?
The Chihuahua native initially caught most of our attention the first time the UFC visited Mexico City in 2015, when he earned a split-decision victory an an all-heart, “Fight of the Night”-earning victory over Charles Rosa.
That memorable matchup kicked off a string of spectacular performances in which he earned four post-fight bonuses in five fights, culminating in his vicious finish of B.J. Penn in 2017.
Just as it seemed Rodriguez was going to break through and become the company’s long-elusive breakthrough Latino superstar, though, he was on the wrong end of a wicked one-sided beating at the hands of Frankie Edgar, then got into a quit/fired he said/she said with the UFC in a contract dispute.
Things were smoothed over, and then Rodriguez returned for his all-time classic scrap with Jung for the UFC’s 25th anniversary show, the one which ended with a knockout elbow at the 24:59 mark of what was already and extraordinary battle.
Four years later, Rodriguez is back where this all started (Yes, we know technically he was on “TUF: Latin America 2,” but we also know most of you weren’t watching it). Imagine, if Rodriguez lives up to his full potential, what a fight between he and featherweight champion Max Holloway would look like. We’re not saying a victory over Stephens gets him there, but it would mark proof that he’s fully put his rough patch behind him once and for all.
Does Jeremy Stephens have one more run left?
The San Diego-based featherweight has been on the scene so long, it might surprise you to learn he’s only 33 years old.
But he’s been with the UFC since 2007, is about to compete for the 45th time in his mixed martial arts career, and has spent most of that time as a hard-charging, throw-bombs-first-ask-questions-later-type of fighter. This all adds up to having more miles on the odometer than the year of the model would seem to indicate.
The positive in this scenario is that Stephens seems to have a sense of urgency. He’s lost two in a row now — first a TKO loss to Jose Aldo in a bout he nearly won before his opponent rallied, then a decision to Zabit Magomedsharipov which wasn’t close — and while on paper that would seem to call for a step down in competition, he went for the opposite.
Stephens enthusiastically lobbied for a fight night-level main event next. First he was willing to fight Calvin Kattar in the later’s Boston hometown. Then he was offered Rodriguez at altitude in Mexico. When he was granted his wish, Stephens went another step and took his training camp into the elevation of Mexico, taking a page out of Fabricio Werdum’s book before his UFC heavyweight title win over Cain Velasquez in the UFC’s Mexico City debut in 2015.
That’s no small challenge, but one he’s embraced. If a clearly motivated Stephens can match his enthusiasm for taking on such a fight with his performance in the cage, maybe he’ll have another run in him yet.
And while we’re at it, does Carla Esparza have one more run left in her?
If you’ve been following Carla Esparza since she went on a big run that culminated in becoming the inaugural Invicta champion and inaugural UFC strawweight champ in back-to-back fights, then you have a true appreciation for her trailblazing status in women’s MMA.
If you missed that part of the program, however, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about.
Esparza (14-6 MMA, 5-4 UFC) has been hit-or-miss since the December 2014 night on which she finished an unpolished Rose Namajunas to become UFC champ – going 4-4 since. Some nights she looks like she could make another run toward the 115-pound belt belt. Other nights, you wonder how she was ever champ in the first place.
And that makes her co-feature bout with Guadalajara’s Alexa Grasso such a critical fight at this juncture of her career. Grasso (11-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC), for her part, has been trading wins and losses for nearly three years. She’s coming off the biggest win of her UFC career over Karolina Kowalkiewicz last time out and is looking to build momentum.
An Esparza win here would be two in a row after a win over the previously unbeaten Virna Jandiroba and would keep her relevant. A loss would be three in four for a fighter who has seen her division progress as fast as any since she held the title.
Will quick turnaround help or hurt Irene Aldana?
Another competitor who has seen fits and starts in her UFC career has been Jalisco’s Irene Aldana. The bantamweight entered the company with a fair bit of hype, then promptly lost her first two UFC bouts.
A three-fight win streak seemed to have Aldana on the brink of serious contention at 135 pounds, but a questionable split-decision loss to former title challenger Raquel Pennington on July 20 in San Antonio put the breaks on her momentum.
Perhaps that’s why Aldana (10-5 MMA, 3-3 UFC) chose to get right back into the heat of the battle, as she steps back into the cage just eight weeks later. She’ll meet Vanessa Melo (10-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC), a late replacement for Marion Reneau. And while her new opponent won’t mean as much in the divisional scheme as would a clash with the veteran Reneau, the simple opportunity to get back at it and get into the win column could be just what Grasso needs to make the Pennington setback a mere blip on the radar.
How will Brandon Moreno’s second UFC stint go?
Tijuana flyweight Brandon Moreno’s UFC path has gone a little differently than most competitors.
Moreno lost his opening-round bout on Season 24 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” then was subjected to a rare move when the UFC gave him his official debut fight while the show was still airing. There, he scored an upset of Louis Smolka, the first of three straight wins to start his UFC career.
Then he lost two in a row, ran afoul of USADA before getting off without a suspension due to ingestion of tainted meat, then was dropped from the company.
Just 16 months after his last UFC fight, though, Moreno is back, having won the LFA flyweight belt in the interim. Moreno meets Askar Askarov in his UFC return. Maybe this time around, his undeniable flashes of brilliance shine through more than the equally undeniable weirdness of his last stint.
